,M34 

Copy 1 






DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



GOXiUXaBZAir HOIITICUXiTURAL socibtit^ 



AT THE 



FIRST ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 



JUNE 6th, 183-1. 



BY GEORGE WATTERSTON. 



WASHINGTON: 

i'RI.NTED BY WM. DAVIS JR. 

1834. 



All 



ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



COLUMBIAN HORTICULTURAL SOCISTir, 



AT THE 



FIRST ANNUAL EXHIBITION, 



JUNB 6tb,ie34. 



BY GEORGE WATTERSTO|f 



370- J 



WASHINGTON: 

PRINTED BY WM. DAVIS JR. 

1834. 






"^.^^'k 

^l^'' 



■vvASHiirsTou', jvsE 14, 1824, 

BEAR SIR : 

It affords us much pleasure, as a Committee appointed for the purpose, 
to communicate to you the unanimous vote of thanks of the Columbiaa 
Horticultural Society for the able and eloquent address delivered by you 
at their first annual exhibition on the 6th instant, and to request that you 
will favor the Society with a copy of that address for publication. When 
we consider the well known zeal yon have manifested and the great interest 
you have taken in wl.atever concerns the prosperity of our infant society 
we are led to the sanguine hope that you will, in this respect, acceed to 
its wishes. 

Your friends and fellow members 

W. HICKEY. 



Geo- Watterston, Esa. 
Corresponding •'*ecretarj/ of /he 

Columbian Horticullural Society. 

fVash.ngton City. 



JAMES KEARNTEY, 
JNO. A. SMITH. 



JULY 1st, 1834. 

SEJVTLBMEN.' 

I feel grateful to the society for the expression of their favorable opinion 
of the humble production to which you refer, and cheerfully comply with 
your request in furnishing a copy for publication. In doing this, I must re- 
mark that, when called upon to prepare an addi ess, I felt some hesitation 
and diffidence in undertaking to speak upon a subject with which I had so 
limited an acquaintance, though it had occasionally formed a part of my 
general studies and was at all times, one in which I took great pleasure. I 
therefore, depended more upon the indulgence of the society, and the facts 
I might acquire than upon my humble powers, or any knowledge I possess- 
ed. That it has met with the approbation of those'to whom it was addressed, 
is, I need scarcely say, a source of sincere gratification; and that gratification 
will be augmented should it be so fortunate as to excite a more general at- 
tention to the art which it recommends or produce an increased fondness for 

its salutary and innocent pursuits. 

Very resp'y 

Your obedient servant, 

GEO. VVATTERSTON. 
To Messrs. W. Hicket, 

Jas. Kearney. 
J. A. Smith. 



ABDRESS. 



Mr. Prksibent, 

And Gemtlemew or the 

Colombian Horticflturai. Societt; 

Sensible of my incompetency to discharge, is 
a suitable manner, the duty your partiality has as- 
signed me, I feel great diffidence, in undertaking a 
task so little in accordance with my usual habits, 
and must, therefore, throw myself upon your gen- 
erous indulgence, in the few rapid and desultory 
remarks, it has been made my duty, on this occa- 
sion, to address to you. 

The productions of na';ure have always been to 

me a source of high gratification. From my earliest 
boyhood I have been accustomed to gaze upon 
whatever, in the vegetable kingdom, was beautiful 
or magnificent, with a feeling of rapt and enthusi- 
astic delight it would be difficult to describe. But 
this love of nature — of the fair and exquisite pro- 
ductions of her hand — of the objects she has deckt 
with her rich and living pencil, is common to us all- 



The poet and the painter may, indeed, feel a high- 
er and holier extacy in the contemplation of her 
beaties; but no mind, however torpid or caloug, 
can turn away from the splendid spectacle she ex- 
hibits when decorated in the varied mantle of 
Spring, the glowing tints of Summer, or the gor- 
geous drapery of Antumn, with indifference or 
apathy. 

In the Horticulturist the pleasure arising from 
the mere contemplation of natural beauty, is m- 
creased by the consciousness of the utUity of the 
objects of his culture and care. Hume has said 
that utility was beauty, and this is felt in all its force 
by him who devotes his labor and attention to the 
culture of those vegetable productions which na- 
ture has provided, with so liberal a hand, for the 
wants of man, 

*' Hence the poor are cloth'd, the huno;ry fed, 
Health to himself'and to his children bread." 
The first occupation of man was that of tilling 
the earth, and his first dwelling place, a garden. 
Eden was formed, and planted and ornamented by 
the Divine hand of the Creator, who placed it in 
the keeping of our original progenitor, and made 
it a region of blissfulness and beauty, where 

"Flovv'rs, worthy of Paradise which not nice art 
In beds and curious knots, but nature boon 
Pour'd forth profuse on hill, and dale, and plain, 
Both where the morning sun first warmly smote 
The open field, and where the unpierc'd shade 
Imbrown'd the noon tide bow'rs." 

A fondness for this healthful occupation is felt 
by most men in all ranks of society. It is early de- 
veloped and clings to us to the last period of life. 



In childhood who has not experienced the pleasure 
of cultivating a spot in his fathers garden, and 
giving to it the form and image of that in which he 
loves to sport? It is an occupation which assimi- 
lates to the innocence if our infant years, and 
what is innocent is always pleasing. In manhood, 
this fondness is increased by the agreeable relaxa- 
tion it affords — the beauty it unfo'ds and the bene- 
fit it confers ; and in old age, when almost every 
other pleasure has faded away but that which 
springs from the consciousness of a well spent and 
virtuous life, it ceases not to diffuse its charm and 
to retain its attraction. Who of us, in the '•'■ sear 
and yellow leaf" does not delight to retire from 
the toils and agitations of the living world to 
the flower bordered walks, and vine covered 
bowers of a garden? Wearied and exhausted by 
the cares and business of life, it is refreshing to in- 
dulge in the pleasing reminiscences and delicious 
associations, which the sight of the flower we loved 
— the plant we cultivated — the shrub we cherish- 
ed in our innocent childhood is calcuated to call 
up. It is the love of nature which still clings to the 
heart, and which the wild conflicts of passion — the 
unbridled fury of political strife — the turmoils and 
cares and :igonies of a heartless world, may deaden 
for a time, but cannot destroy. To the philosopher, 
the statesman, the hero and the poet, in all ages of 
the world, the cultivation of the soil— of the fruits 
and flowers of the earth, has been a source of ra. 
tional enjoyment. And to all men, the pursuits of hor- 
ticulture are peaceful and salutary, affording in- 



etructive amusement, and giving vigor to the body 
and a healthy action to the mind. '' In my opinion" 
says Cicero, " no kind of occupation is more preg- 
nant with happiness, not only as it is of singular 
utiHty to mankind in general, but a* being attended 
with peculiar and very considerable pleasures."* 

To none, howev^er, is the garden a source of 
higher and purer enjoyment than to the female sex. 
Their sensibilities being more accute, they relish, 
with greater intensity the beauty which surrounds 
them, and which they cannot fail to behold in every 
border, and flower-woven arbour — in every plant 
and shrub, and tree over which the eye glances as 
it roams amidst the varied beauties of a well culti- 
vated garden. To them the floral department is 
an object of especial attraction. The exquisite 
coloring, and the delicate and graceful forms of 
the productions of Flora are nicely adapted to 
the fine perception of beauty which exists in the 
female mind. — In what region of the world, in 
what condition of life, does no tho love of flowers, 
prevail among females ? In the lowly cottage, as 
well as the magnificent palace, it displays itself in 
the floral wreath, and the woodbine, and jessa- 
mine, and rose that diffuse their fragrance, and de- 
corate the laticed window of the humble dwell- 
ing of iimocence and poverty. In the populous 
city where the want of ground prevents the indul- 
gence of their favorite propensity in its full extent? 

* Cicero On old age. 



9 

the wintlows and parlours of their habitations are 
often found ornamented with the ro-;e, the mignio- 
nette and the geranium. "But who. snys Boursault, 
does not love floweis? T!iey embellish our gar- 
dens ; they give a more brilliant lustre to our festi- 
vals; they are the interpretor-i of our afR'Ctions; 
they are the testimonials of our gratitude. We pre- 
sent them to those to whom we are under obliga- 
tions; they are often necessary to the pomp of our 
religious ceremonies, and they seem to associate 
and mingle their perfumes with the purity of our 
prayers, and the homage which we address to the 
Almighty. Happy are those who love and culti- 
vate them." There is,moreover, in the well cultiva- 
ted garden, a plicid beauty and a stillness and re- 
pose suited to the tranquillity of domestic life, and 
which, in the bustle and excitements of the world 
make us hope, like the poet Cowley, that we may 
be able " one day to retire to a small house and a 
large garden." I'here is much truth in the obser- 
vation of Mrs. Hoffland, " our first most endearing 
and sacred associations are connected with gardens; 
our most simple and most refined perceptions of 
beauty are combined with them, and the very con- 
dition of our being, compels us to the cares, and re- 
w'ards us with the pleasures attached to them." 
The Greeks appropriated their celestial gardens to 
the Gods; and the Mahometans, says Phillips, re- 
serve their flowery lawns and umbrageous bowers 
for scenes of future bliss. To the fair sex may 
be attributed many of the improvements and beau- 
lies which are now so conspicuous in the ornamcnt- 






10 

al or landscape garden — The wonderful hanging 
gardens of Babylon are said to owe their origin to 
the Queen of Nebuckadnezzer who to pacify her 
regrets at leaving the country in which she was 
born, and which appeared so beautiful by contrast? 
erected the famous terraces, covered with trees, 
and supporting rural seats, fountains, and banquet- 
ting halls which formed one of the wonders of the 
world. But, whatever, may have been the influ- 
ence exercised by woman in the formation and im- 
provement of the gardens of antiquity, it is certain 
that there is no department of nature so appropri- 
ate to the female hand as the cultivation of flowers* 
*' Flowers seem intended for the embellishment of 
the fair and for the ornanfent of the spot where they 
tread. Their sweet perfumes have such influence 
over all our sensations that in the midst of flower- 
ing shrubs the most acute grief generally gives 
way to the sweetest melancholly. When our home 
or domestic companions are encompassed by the 
shrubbery our situation then approaches nearest 
to a terrestrial paradise."* There is perhaps, no 
object in nature more pleasing than a young and 
beautiful woman, blooming in innocence and loveli- 
ness seen amidst a parterre of flowers, herself the 
fairest, sustaining the drooping lily, or administer- 
ing to the nourishment of the expanding beauties 
of the rose. 

" Much I love 
To see the fair one bind the straggling pink, 
Cheer the sweet rose, the lupin, and the stock, 

* Phillips' Sika. 



II 

And lend a staff to the still gadding pea, 

Ye fair it well becomes you. Belter thus 

Cheat time away than at the crowded rout, 

Rustling in silk, in a small I'oom close pent, 

And heated e'en to fusion ; made to breathe 

A rank, contageous air, and fret at whist 

Orsit aside to sneer and whisper scandal." crabbe. 

Horticulture is one of the first indications of 
civilization. In the origin of society mankind ex- 
ist on the products of the chace, and their first em- 
ployment is that of the hunter. The pastoral life 
next succeeds ; the cultivation of the soil is then 
resorted to, and the earth pours into the lap of in- 
dustry all that the wants and necessities of man 
require. Civilization, and its concomitants, luxury & 
refinement, are introduced, and gardening then ri- 
ses to the dignity of a fine art. Horticulture in its 
restricted sense, was among the earliest occupa- 
tions of man, and is almost co-eval with the world. 
It was not till society had reached a high degree of 
polish and refinement that the beautiful art of land- 
scape gardening became an object of attention and 
study. Lord Bacon has coireclly remarked that 
"when ages grow to civility and elegancy men 
come to build stately, sooner than to garden finely; 
as if gardening were the greater perfection." Land- 
scape gardening, is not so niuch an imitative art, as 
"nature itself ornamented." It has of late been 
brought to a high degree of perfection in England, 
where it contiiiues to be patronised and promoted 
by the wealth and taste of the nation. It has been 
gradually advancing from its fif-t rude beginnings 
to the high excellence to which it has now attained ; 



12 

from the first attempt to ornament nature in the 
gardens of Alcinous as described by Homer, to the 
splendid condition of the art now existing in Eu- 
rope. In the age of Homer, even the conception 
of an oniamontiil garden must have been hum- 
ble and hmited, when the rich imagination of the 
Father ol Epic poetry, could not body forth a more 
perfect specimen of the art than the one he has 
kft us. The garden of Alcinous was but an or- 
chaid and kitchen garden, which is thus descri- 
bed. 

Four acres was the allotted space of ground 
Fenc'd with a green enclosure all around 
Tall thriving trees confessed the fruitful mould 
The reddenning apple ripens into gold. 
Here the blue fig with luscious jure o'er flows ; 
With deeper red the full pomegranate glows; 
The branch here bends beneath the weighty pear, 
The verdant olives flourish round the year, 
Beds of .'til various kinds, forever green, 
In beauteous order terminate the scene. 

As society advanced in refinement and luxury, a 
taste for ornamental gardening was gradually de- 
veloped, cultivated and displayed, among the 
Greeks, the Romans, the Persians, and the Chi- 
nese. But it was not till the commencement«of 
the 18th century, that this art began to claim the 
attention of men of taste and wealth in Europe 
The improvements which have been made in it, 
have been properly attributed to the natural pro- 
gress of art and refinement, aided by descriptions 
of Chinese gardens and the rich and vivid delinia- 
tions of natural scenery abounding in the ancient 
and modern poets. The paradise of Milton, the 



13 

reasons of Thompson, Tasso's garden of Armida, 
the Vale of Tempe, and the Vaucluse of Petr- 
arch, have all been said to fuinish hints and sug- 
gest improvements in what Walpole terms the art 
of '' creating Landscape." The Italian style of 
gardening prevailed for many years in Europe. It 
consisted of terraces of masonry, flights oi steps, 
arcades, grottos, clipp'd hedges, niches, and recess- 
es for statues. To this succeeded the Dutch style 
which consisted of sloped grass terraces, land and 
water thrown into various forms, adorned with 
trees in pots or planted alternately, and regularly 
clipped. Le Notre, finally arose who planned and 
executed the famous gardens of Versailles. His 
designs are charged with having been too puerile 
and artificial to please the refined taste of the ele- 
^antios Jormarum spectator, Dufresnoy followed Le 
Notre, and possessing a better taste, endeavoured 
to introduce a more picturesque and natural style 
into ornamental gardening. This was improved 
by Kent who first introduced the modern style into 
England; and Kent was, succeeded in this beautiful 
art, by Wright, Brown, and Repton as professors; 
and by Southcoat, Hamilton, fehenstone, Littleton 
and Pitt, as proprietors and amateurs. 

But Horticulture as a useful art comes more pe- 
culiarly within the provinceof this -ociety 

To this branch belongs the cultivation of fruits, 
flowers and esculent vegetables,and it embraces the 
kitchen garden, orchard, nursery, rosery, green- 
house, and botanical and medical garden. Long 
experience and the progress of science have ren- 



u 

dered these different departments productive of 
great advantage to mankind. For many ages men 
cultivated the soil without the light of science, and 
pursued the mode adopted hy those who preceded 
them, without inquiring into the principles upon 
which their practical operations were founded. 
Natural History, Botasij, and Chemistry were but 
little studied in reference to horticulture, and but 
seldom resorted to for the purpose of extending the 
benefits and multiplying the beauties of the gar- 
den, or developing the principles of vegetable life. 
The rapid improvements made in botany, vegetable 
physiology and chemistry, within a few centuries, 
have been such as greatly to extend the sphere of 
Horticultural science, by rendering the theory 
more intelligible, and its prac-tice more certain and 
delightfol. The ancients have left but little behind 
them, in the beautiful science of botany, that is 
worthy of preservation. They had no system, and 
their descriptions of plants are vague and unsatis- 
factory. The labors of Theophrastus, Diascorides 
and Pliny, are entirely useless at the. present day ; 
and it was not till the appearance of that extraordi- 
nary man, Linnaeus, that botany could be properly 
ranked among the sciences. The vast accession of 
knowledge in the vegetable kingdom which has 
been the consequence of his labors and devotion 
to science, may be estimated from the following 
brief statement of the additions which have been 
made, at different periods of the w^orld, to the ca- 
talogue of plants. Homer mentions but 30, the 
Bible 7 1 . Hippocrates 274, Theophrastus ^00, Dias- 



u 

corides 700, and Pliny 1000 plants. About seventeen 
centuries after the age of the latter, Linnaeus ap- 
peared and enlarged this meagre catalogue to be- 
tween 11 and 12,000. Since his time the iiomeucla- 
ture has been swelled to the almost nicredible magni- 
tude of 150,000 plants. What an immense addition to 
the comfort, gratification and health of mankind ! 
What light and usefulness has not the science of 
Botany blended with the labors of the Horticultu- 
rist ! But it is a science, which, distinct from the deep 
and rational gratification it affords, is almost indis- 
pensible to the gardener, especially that branch of 
it which imparts a knowledge of the physiology, 
the structure and functions of plants. Asa source 
of enjoyment to the cultivated mind, independently 
of its great usefulness, I give the testimony of one 
of the most distinguished Botanists of this country. 
" It has been for many years," says Dr. Elliott, of 
South Carolina, the occupation of my leisure mo- 
ments, and it is a merited tribute to saj that it has 
lightened for me many a heavy and smoothed ma- 
ny a rugged hour ; that beguiled by its charms, I 
have found no road rough or difficult, no journey 
tedious, no country desolate or barren. In solitude 
never solitary, in a desert never without employ- 
ment, I have found it a relief from the languor of 
idleness, the pressure of business and the unavoid- 
able calamities of life." The experience of every 
Botanist will confirm the trutli of this eloquent 
description. — To him indeed 

*'The meanest flower that blows can give 
Thoughts that ©ft lie too deep for tears." 

It has been justly remarked that a knowledge of 
botany " gives as it were an additional eye t« those 



16 

who walk either amongst the native beauties of 
the field or the exotic charms of the shrubbery; for 
however elegant, however admirable, however di- 
versified the structure of vegetables may be, it 
does not strike the eye of those who are ignorant 
of their parts enough to interest them; because they 
do not even know where to look, or the use of what 
th«^y look at. They have no conception of that 
assemblage and chain of relations and combinations 
which overwhelm with their wonders the mind of 
the observer who has studied this part of the crea-* 
tion and who would find more beauties in the little 
inflated flower of the Arbutus than the indolent 
observer can perceive in the gay amaryllis of Bue- 
nos Ayres, or than the iiidifferent spectator will see 
in the matchless elegence of the passijlora whose 
stars so splendidly illuminate the Brazilian for- 
ests."* In the cultivated garden, as well as in the 
trackless wilds of nature, there is not 

"A tree 
A plant, a leaf, a blossom but contains 
A folio volume. We may read and rt-ad, 
And read again, and still find something new 
Something to please, and something to instruct." 

In no department of nature have the imagination 
and taste of that Matchless Being who created the 
Universe, been so signally displayed as in the ve- 
getable kingdf>m. Each plant and flower has been 
designed, and formed and colored with the most 
exquisite and beautiful fancy, and with a view to 
the gratification and benefit of the animal creation. 
Their multiplicity and endless variety, their singu- 



''■- Fhilhps' Silva Florifera. 



lar strncture, and admirable adaptation to the 
wants of organic beings, display the wisdom, bene- 
ficence and elegance of the Divine Mind. 

" Whose breath perrumcs them and whose pencil paints." 

I shall not, on this occasion, enter into the 
philosophy of vegetation. Its wonders I leave to 
a more skihul hand, to whom we have delegated 
this pleasing task;t but I must be permitted to men- 
tion a few facts illustrative of the operations of ve- 
getable nature in the production of liquids and 
substances similar to those of the Bee, the Cow the 
Sheep Slc. TheMyrica Pennsylvanica is said to yield 
an annual supply of vegetable ivax — the Palo de 
Vaca of South America furnishes an abundance of 
real milk — a tree in Guayaquil produces a fine tvool 
— one in China secretes a tallow like /«/ — one in 
the West Indies an exquisite marrow, and another 
in Buenos Ayres becomes a vegetable fountain, and 
yields a copious effusion of pure ivater. Vegetables 
have also a strong affinity to the mineral kingdom; for 
they form carbon, and some contain copper, sulphun 
iron and gold. In regions where the n>ys of the sun 
cannot penetrate, the wise providence of God has 
produced the Fungus Rhizomorpha " which vege- 
tates in dark mines far from the light of day. In 
the coal mines near Dresden it gives those places 
the air of an enchanted castle. The roofs, walls 
and pillars are entirely covered with them; tiieir 
beautiful light almost dazzling the eye.''''* Otiiers again 
live on air alone, as the Epidendron, jlos aris; famous 

Ed. Phil. Journal, 14th vol. 
+ W. Rich, Lecturer on Botany and vegetable Ph3-siology. 
3 



for the beauty of its flowers and the sweetness of 
its perfume. The Chinese suspend it round the 
ceiling of their rooms"* where it forms a living fes- 
toon, breathing fragrance and charming the eye by 
the splendor of its beauty. 

In the wonderful productiveness of vegetable 
nature, the goodness and wisdom of the Benevolent 
Creator are not less displayed than in its surprising 
organization and beauty. No conceivable increase 
of the human species or of animal life can ever sur- 
pass the continued supply of vegetable food which 
the Beneficient Hand of God has spread exuber- 
antly over the earth for the sustenance and com- 
fort of his creatures. Its whole bosom teems with 
the productive principle of vegitation. A single 
tree will produce a large forest, and seeds blown 
by the winds and carried by the birds of the air to 
regions where they had never before vegetated, 
soon flourish, become attached to the soil and pro- 
duce and re-produce to infinity. Seeds will lie 
inert for centuries, and when buried in the ground 
too deep for vegetation will remain untouched by 
decay, till brought nearer the surface. A bulbous 
root was found a few years ago, in the hand of an 
Egyptian mummy, and after the lapse of twenty 
centuries, was again restored to its parent earth, 
where it once more vegetated and became a beauti- 
ful plant. 

But it is with the improvability of vegetable na- 
ture that this society has the most immediate con- 

Bull. Unir. 1829. 



19 

cern. In this principle it greatly transcends all or- 
ganic and inorganic matter. By culture this faculty 
IS developed and enlarged to an almost infinite 
extent. Many of the productions of the vegetable 
kingdom have been rendered b;y culture not only 
very abundant and beautiful, but even their charac- 
ter has been changed. To the sloe we are indebted 
for tho fine plum; the common crab is the stock 
from which has sprung the various species of tho 
dehcious apple^ and the sweet brier is said to be the 
parent of all the beautiful and almost endlesss va- 
rieties of the rose. In an uncultivated state many 
of the nutricious esculent veo^etables which consti- 
tute a portion of the regular food of civilized man, 
such as the carrot, parsnip, cVc. are poisonous; Cul- 
ture has given them new properties, and a wonder- 
ful enlargement. '•'Man, says Loudon, improving on 
nature produces cabbages and t irnips of half a 
hundred weight, and apples of one pound and a 
half," Strawberries have been produced seven in- 
ches in circumference, an apple that has measured 
iifteen inches round — a bunch of grapes that has 
weighed fifteen pounds, and a mushroom upwards 
of a foot in diameter. 

Such is the improvability of vegetable nature 
which points out to man the necessity of labor and 
the advant ge of cidtivation. But to render culti- 
vation effectual, Horticulture as a science requires, 
in addition to Botany, the aid and co-operation of 
other branches, of knowledge among which the 
most important are Chemistry, Mineralogy, Rural 
Architecture, and Entomolegy. The scientific gar- 



20 

dener s'loukl be acquainted with the various ma- 
terials, or substances of whicli the earth that he 
tills is composed, that he may, with greater cer- 
tainty and benefit know how to adapt the plant to 
its most congenial soil, and the soil to the plant. 
A knowledge of the properties of compost, the 
manner in which lands are enriched, the causes of 
their fertility, the peculiar character of each soil, 
the effect and operation of different manures on 
vegetation &c., are imdispensible to the skilful hor- 
ticulturist. Rural architecture, hydraulics, and 
mechanics form no inconsiderable portion of the 
necessary information of the landscape gardener. 
Indeed 

" Ce noble emploi demande un artiste qui pense 
Prodigue de genie, mais non pas de depense." Delille* 

But to the practical horticulturist no branch 
of physical science is more useful and important 
than Entomology. Small as the objects may be of 
which it treats and insignificant as it may seem to 
the generality of mankind, it is, nevertheless, 
highly interesting in itself, and of great and ob- 
vious utility to the gardener. The matchless wis- 
dom and perfection of God are not less sti-ikingly 
manifested in the formation of this class of ani- 
mated beings than in the other portions of his 
animal kingdom. The fairy and gorgeous but- 
terfly, and the brilliant beetle are as exquisitely 
imagined and as elaborately executed as the most 
splendid floral production of his hand. To these 
''valued minatures, nature has given the most de- 
licate touch and highest finish of her pencil. 



21 

Numbers are armed with a glittering mail like 
burnished gold, in others is the dazzling radianco 
of" polished gems, some are decked vvit!i Avhat 
looks like liquid drops, or plates of gold and 
silver, some vie with flowers in the delicacy and 
variety of their colors, others in the texture of 
their wings, and others in the rich cottony down 
that clothes them."* Their instinct and magi- 
cal transformations excite our admiration and as- 
tonishment. In the wonderful metamorphosis of 
the insect tribe, passing from the inert mass, the 
egg, to the perfect animal, throngh all their dif- 
ferent stages of existence, we cannot fail to re- 
cognize an anology between these physical changes 
and that which our immortal spirits are destined to 
undergo; and I cordially concur, with an able wri- 
ter on this subject,t in the belief " that one of 
the gn at purposes of the Deity in creating his 
insect kingdom was to excite this sentiment, (a 
belief in the resurrection) in the human heart? 
and to raise by it the contemplative mind to look 
forward to a possible revival from the tomb, as the 
butterfly from its sepulchral chrysalis." 

The poetical imagination and exquisite taste of 
the ancient Greeks led them, without any know- 
ledge of christain revelation, to embody the human 
soul under the form of a butterfly, and a represen- 
tation of this insect was engraved on their head 
stones and tombs to denote that the spirit or soul. 

*Kirb_y and Spptice, Entom. vol 1. 

J S. Turner's J^icrcd History. 



22 

Psyche, would reappear in a new form and state of 
being. 

"Noi siarn vermi 
Natl a formar rangelica forlalla." 

But however admirable and beautiful the in- 
sect tribe may be, their habits and history must 
be studied by the gardener mainly for the pur- 
pose of acquiring that knowledge which will en. 
able him to render them less noxious rind des- 
tructive to the objects of his care, attention and 
labor. Insects exist almost exclusively on the 
productions of the vegetable kingdom ; every leaf, 
blossom, fruit and plant is their food — neither 
root trunk nor branch is exempt from their inroads ; 
they spread from pole to pole, and are found 
wherever a vegetable exists to afford them nour- 
ishment, and enable them to propagate their spe- 
cies. Their ravages are sometim^^s extensive and 
desolating, and their most ordinary, though ne- 
cessary operations, injurious to vegetable lite. It 
is important therefore, to study their economy, 
to be the better able to devise remedies for the 
injuries they commit. Entomology has already 
been of considerable advantage, in this particu- 
lar, botii to agriculture and gardening, and if 
this branch of natural history be pursued, with 
this view, there is every reason to expect that 
much additional benefit will be the result. He 
who shall discover from a knowledge of their ha- 
bits and economy, the best mode of extermina- 
ting those noxious insects, or of preventing their 
destructive ravages, will render an inestimable 



23 

service to horticulture, and deserve the lasting 
gratitude of his country, 

Such are the diversified intellectual acquire- 
ments, and the various branches of knowledge 
which the science of horticulture requires. The 
establishment of this and other kindred societies 
will, T think, be the means of encouraging the 
prosecution of these auxilliary studies, and of great" 
}y promoting the useful objects of horticulture' 
" More real useful improvements it is said, " have 
been made in gardening since the formation of the 
London Horticultural Society than have been made 
in China within the last thousand years." The be- 
neficial effects of these institutions have been felt 
wherever they have been formed. They encour- 
age industry, create a new spirit o{ horticultural 
enterprize, lead to new inquiries, to diversified 
and often useful experiments, to more skilful modes 
of cultivation, and are liberal and social in their 
tendencies. Among the earliest institutions of this 
sort was the Florists Society in Edinburg formed 
in 1803, which afterwards took and now retains 
the title of the Caladonian Horticultural Society. 
This was followed by the London Horticultural 
Society established in 1805, and in 1826 a similar 
institution was formed in Paris. The example of 
these countries has been imitated in the United 
States, and Horticultural societies now exist in 
Boston, New York, Albany, Geneva, Philadel- 
phia, Maryland and South Carolina. 

Their productive effects may be partially esti- 
mated from the fact that a few years ago in the 



24 

vicinity of London, 14,000 acres of land were oc- 
cupied as fruit and kitchen gardens, the annued pro- 
duce of which sold for four millions of dollars. 
Near Edinburg five hundred acres arc thus ap- 
propriated, the products of which yield annually 
;^ 100,000. The consequence of the establishment 
of the IMassachusetts Horticultural Society, it is 
said, in an eloquent and sensible address of one ol 
its members, has been to produce a "decided im- 
provement in the grounds of men of wealth and 
leisure, and in the gardens and court-yards of the 
middling class of citizens; and even the home of ttie 
laboring poor has, in not a few instances, acquired 
an additional point of interest to attract him from 
the haunti of dissipation; hiii leisure hours are pleas- 
antly occupied; his mind expanded, and his heart 
warmed and softened."* 

Our Institution is of recent origin; but from its 
peculiar location, we have every reason to indulge 
the hope that it will not fall behind its fellow la- 
borers in usefulness, and that its more immediate 
effect will be a sensible improvement in the fruits 
and esculent vegetables of our climate. In the 
centre of our vast republic, at the seat of the Fe- 
deral Government, communicating through its 
public agents, with all parts of the globe, the loca- 
tion of this society is certainly unequaled in this 
country. For the exercise of the ornamental branch 
of the art which this institution proposes to en- 
courage, our position also possesses great capabil- 

*Dr. Wards Address. 



S5 

ities. Nature has done much, in the beautiful out 
line and splendid landscape scenery, she has form- 
ed within the limits of our District. It requires 
but the addition of art, backed by wealth, to 
render our territory,so far as it concerns mere phys- 
ical beauty, the Paradi-e of America; and this, I 
expect soon to see both publicly and privately em- 
ployed to give embellishment, variety and splendor 
to the striking natural beauties by which we are sur- 
rounded. The effect of horticulturd taste and en- 
terprise is perhaps no where more happily illustra- 
ted than in the minature garden of our President- 
It exhibits all the variety, and skilful arrangement 
that good taste could bf-stow^ and it is to be regret- 
ted that he had not had a wider field, and bettor 
opportunities for its display. His laudilde exam- 
ple will, I hope, be imitated by others till a taste for 
horticulture shall be diffused among all classes of 
the community whose circumstances will enable 
them to appropriate a portion of their time, labor, 
and means to the improvement and embellishment 
of their grounds, however small. 

In England this taste is so widely extended and 
so fondly cherished, that scarsely an humble cottage 
is seen without its little garden spot, and its white 
washed walls, decorated with the honey suckle, 
woodbine and other floral ornaments. And 
"Where around the Cots romantic glafle are seen, 
The blossom'd beanfield and the sloping green." 

Should this society succeed in infusing a taste 

for horticulture as an elegant art, it does not require 

great exercise of imagination to conceive tlie splend- 
4 



26 

id pictoriae scene that this District would present 
in the course of half a century. The beautiful 
heights that surround our city— their verdant and 
sunny slopes — the majestic river, rolhng at their 
base — the undulating outline — the gorgeous antum- 
nal foliage of its woods, and the other capabilities 
it possesses, may be converted, by the hand of 
taste, into a scene on which the eye will delight to 
gaze, as on one created by the power of enchant- 
ment. But for myself, I know no application of 
this branch of the art, more delightful than to the 
decoration of the last resting places of the dead. 
The romantic garden of graves of Pere la Chaise 
has become an object of beauty, as well as of deep 
interest, to all who visit the Capital of France, from 
the embellishments it has received from horticultu- 
ral taste. May we not flatter ourselves that some- 
thing like this will yet be done in the Burial ground 
of our city, and that aided by Congress, and en- 
larged, arranged and ornamented under the direc- 
tion of this society, it will present a spectacle of 
picturesque and living beauty, amid the melancholy 
mementos of the mouldering dead, that no one can 
contemplate without the deepest interest and ad- 
miration. It has been beautifully said by the Vice 
President of the Massachusetts Horticultural So- 
ciety, in speaking of the mount Auburn cemetery.* 
'' The weeping Willow, waving its graceful drapery 
over the monumental marble and the sombre foliage 
of the Cypress should shade it, the undjing daisy 
should mingle its bright and glowing tints with the 
native laurels of our forests. It is there I would de- 
*Z. Cook, Jr. 



27 

sire to see the taste of the florist manifested in the 
collection and arrangement of beautiful and frag- 
rant flowers that in their budding and bloom and 
decay they should be the silent and expressive 
teachers of morality, and remind us that, although 
like the flowers of Antumn, the race of man is fading 
from off the earth, yet iike them his root will not 
perish in the ground, but will rise again in a renew- 
ed existence, to shed the sweet influence of a use- 
ful life, in gardens of unfading beauty." Yes, cold 
and torpid must be the heart of him who could stroll 
amid such a scene and be insensible to the melan- 
cholly charm which the fragrance he inhales, the 
beauty he beholds, and the thought of those who 
are mouldering into dust at his (eei are calculated 
to infuse. Horticulture can spread its beauties 
over the solemn mansions of the dead, as well as 
amid the splendid dwellixigs of the living — can ad- 
minister to the indulgence ot buried affection, as 
well as to the joyous feelings of requited love. But 
we are indebted to horticulture for most the of com- 
forts as well as many of the pleasures of life. We 
owe to this art the culture of the most beautiful or- 
namental trees and shrubs, the choicest variety of 
fruits — the finest kind of flowers, and the most nutri- 
cious and wholesome species of vegetables. Even 
agriculture is indebted to the garden for many of its 
most valuable products. There, says, Poiteau, "like 
the young Hercules, she first tried her powers, and 
prepared, like him to overrun the world which she 
speedily cleared of monsters, and bestowed apon 
"man the laws of civilization." 



28 

Horticulture administers not only to our wants and 
pleasures, but it also gives a high moral tone to our 
feelings by habituating the mind to the tranquillity 
and contentment of domestic life, and the quiet 
pleasures of rural occupation. We are carried 
from the contemplation ol the exquisite specimens 
of the taste and wisdom of the Creator which we 
are laboring to rear, to the Creator himself. Our 
admiration becomes more enthusiastic and our devo- 
tion more ardent. "All the beautiful thoughts and 
sentiments," says Sharon Turner "which poetry has 
breathed in every age in praise of verdant or floral 
nature and of rural life, are the expressed homage 
of the heart to the charms and utilities of the vege- 
table creation and are so many undesigned but im- 
plied encomiums on its invisible author for planning 
and ordaining it." 

''Forth in the pleasing Spring 
Thy beauty walks; thy tenderness and love. — 
Wide flush the fields; the softening air is balm 
And every sense and every heart is joy." 
The vegetable kindom is profuse with the man- 
ifestations of the goodness, liberality and kindness of 
the Deity towards man. "It expands, says the elo- 
quent writer, I have just quoted,* 'every where be- 
fore us an immense portraiture of the Divine mind 
in its contriving skill, profuse immaginalion, con- 
ceiving genius and exquisite tase; as well as its in- 
teresting qualities of the most gracious benignity 
and the most benevolent munificense. The various 
flowers we behold awaken these sentiments withipi 

* Turner's Sacred Hist. 



29 

us, and compel our reason to make these percep- 
tions and this inference. They are the annual 
heralds and ever returning pledges to us of his con- 
tinuing beneficence, of his desire to please and to 
benefit us, and therefore of his parental and intel- 
lectual amiabihties. The thunder — the pestilence 
and the tempest awe and humble us into dismaying 
recollections of his tremendous omnipotence, and 
possible visitations, and of our total inability to re- 
sist or avert them ; but the beauty and benefactions 
of his vegetable creations — the flowers and the 
forests more especially remind and assures us of 
his unforgetting care, of his condescending sympa- 
thy, of his paternal attentions and of the same ajOTec- 
tionate benignity, still actuating his mind which 
must have intluenced it to design and execute such 
lovely and benevolent productions that display the 
minutest thought, mo-t elaborate compositions, and 
io much personal kindness." It is in the garden 
that we can see the wisdom and tenderness, and 
beneficence of the Benevolent Creator, and it is 
there that our gratitude and devotion would lead 
lis to exclaim, with the poet of night, 

"O how Omnipotence 

Is lost ia love! Thou great Philanthropist, 

Father of angels, but the Friend ofMan.^' 

Look around you and behold the spectacle of 
beauty and usefulness which nature, aided by the 
hand of industry and art, has spread before you. 
This festival of flowers — this banquet of delights 
this "beauty to the eye and pleas^ure to the sense," 
will, I trust, be annually enjoyed by those who pre- 
fer the happiness which sprmgs from the refresh- 



30 

ing and salutary pursuits of Horticulture to the 
feverish and exiting agitations of artificial life. 
We'invite, then, all both male and female, to unite 
with us in the pleasing and useful enterprise in 
which we have engaged — to join us in our efforts 
to spread a taste for the beauties of nature, and in- 
fuse a relish for a pursuit which is so replete with 
innocence and happiness — and which so largely 
contributes to the utility, and comfort, and enjoy- 
ment of mankind. 



SXSCRZPTXOlf 

OF THE FIRST JJVJYUJL 
EXHIBITION. 



The first annual Exhibition of the Columbian Horticultural 
Society was held in the City Hall, on the 5th and 6th of June. A 
large and splendid collection of green-house plants, and a great var- 
iety of garden flowers, vegetables, and fruits, were brought from 
the different parts of the District to the Hall of exibition. The 
season having been very unfavorable, it was apprehended that the 
exibition would disappoint public expectation; but such were the 
zeal and enthusiasm of the horticulturist, florists, and others of 
the District, that it presented, even on the first day, a spectacle 
of beauty and splendor that surprised all who saw it, and that was 
said to be unsurpassed, in variety and profusion, by any thing of 
the kind ever before seen in this country. The committee, to 
whom its superintendence was assigned, displayed great taste in 
its arrangement by the admirable grouping and disposition of 
the plants, and assisted by several ladies of the City and it vicin- 
ity, who kindly lent their aid on the occasion, succeeded in ren- 
dering it a scene of enchantment, where the eye was feasted with 
beauty, the scent regaled by the delicious jfragrance of the richest 
flowers, and the ear charmed by the melody of birds, placed amid 
the verdant foliage and golden fruit of the orange and citrion trees, 
by the soft and pensive tones of the Eolian Harp, and the fine mu- 
sic of the Marine band. The green-house plants and the numer- 
ous garden flowers were arranged on pyramids, in different parts 
of the spacious hall and along the walls of the apartment, leaving 
alleys, bordered by the most rare and beautiful productions of 
Flora, through which the visiter passed to gaze on the beauties 
and inhale the fragrance that breathed around him. Every one 



32 

that entered was struck by the novelty and splendor of the fairy 
scene, and crowds rushed to behold it before it should disappear. 
Two small floral pyramids were constructed and arranged in the 
most tasteful manner, by several ladies of the District, consisting 
of at least 400 varieties of the choicest and most beautiful garden 
flowers, chiefly from the parterre of Mrs. Bomford and Air, J. 
Pierce, .ind supporting a magnificent silver vase crov/ned with 
flowers. Glass globes, surmounted with bouquets of roses, lilies, 
pinks, etc. and containing gold fish, sporting and glittering in their 
native element, were placed in different paiis of the hall, and 
seemed to swim amid a flood of fr.igrance. At night the spectacle 
was, if possible, still more splendid and enchanting. The lights, 
interspersed among the shrubs, tropical fruit trees, and groups of 
flowers, gare additional brilliancy and beauty to the almost magi- 
cal scene. During the exibition, on both days, the hall was crow- 
ded by visiters who flocked to witness this festival of Flora, and all 
seemed delighted at the first effort of the society, which so far 
surpased their expectations, and gave so fair a promise of future 
exellence and utility. The scene appeared to inspire a feeling 
of harmony and social affection; and every thing calculated to dis- 
turb or agitate was charmed into silence, or banished from the 
mind, by the tranquillizing and splendid spectacle thus exhibited. 
The committee of arrangements are entitled to high praise for 
their assiduity and for the taste and untiring zeal the}'^ displayed in 
making the exhibition so attractive and beautiful. The exhibition 
was closed on friday evening, the 6th, by an Address from George 
Watterston, Esq, Cor. Sec, to whom the task had been assigned 
by the unanimous voice of the societ}', and who acquitted himself 
in a manner highly satisfactory to his fellow members, and pleasing 
to the numerous and respectable assemblage of persons present 
on the occasion The orator presented an interesting view of 
the history and science of Horticulture, the salutary and peaceful 
tendencies of its pursuits, and the charms which it receives from 
female industry and taste. He took a review of the antiquity and 
gradual progress of this interesting science, both in its ornamen- 
tal and useful branches of those parts of knowledge necessary to a 
correct understanding and development of its principles and prac- 
tice, and to the successful prosecntion of its labors. He dwelt upon 



33 

the useful eflfects of cultiration on vegetable nature; on the rich- 
ness and abundance with which Divine Providence has blessed 
mankind, in bestowing upon him such inexhaustible stores of veg- 
etable wealth. The munificence and wisdom of the Deitj in its 
formation, its diversity, its beauty; and preserving and handing, 
down from age to age, its treasures for the use of man. He ex- 
plained the origin, history, and improving nature, of Horticultural 
societies in Europe and America, and the beneficial efiects antici- 
pated for the District of Columbia from the establishment of the 
Columbian Horticultural Society, whose exertions where destined 
to improve the moral and religious character of its inhabitants, and 
add to the happiness of the social and domestic circle. It were 
impractible, in a short sketch, to embrace even an outline of the 
address: suffice it to say, that it Avas heard with deep interest, and 
responded to by universal applause. 

At the hour named for the delivery of the address, 8 o'clock, the 
room, though very spacious, was filled to overflowing, and the or- 
ator had the satisfaction to know that his learned and appropriate 
discourse was listened to by a delighted audience, combining a full 
share of the beauty, fashion, and talent, that usually graces and 
enlightens the capital of the nation when congress is in session. 

It was a matter of regret that the Society could not comply with 
the earnest request of the citizens, by continuing the exhibition 
during the whole of Saturday, The room being required for the 
accommodation of the newly elected City Council on the Monday 
following, it was necessary that the plants should he removed prior 
to that day, and therefore the Society were constr?iined to close 
the exhibition on Friday, to the regret of many who had not had 
nn opportunity of visiting it. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



002 762 723 7 




